Store-front construction.



G. C. HESTER.

STORE FRONT CONSTRUCTION.

APPLITIATION FILED FEB. 21. I914.

1,291,51 1. Pzptcnted Jan. 14,1919;

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE C. HESTER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO BRASCO MANUFACTURINGCOMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

STORE-FRONT CONSTRUCTION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 14, 1919.

Application filed February 21, 1914. Serial No. 820,284.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE C. HESTER, of Chicago in the county of Cook,and in the State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and usefulImprovement in Store- Front Construction, and do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

Sash of sheet metal, such, for example, as copper, is largely used forstore front construction where large sheets of plate glass are used, thesheet metal being desirable because of the attractive finish to thewindow it presents; its inexpensiveness of manufacture and thepossibility of the application of a metal surface to the glass withoutthe intervention of putty between the contiguous surface of glass andsash. There are certain practical objections to sheet metal sash, suchas is now used, some of which will be mentioned. The members of the sashas sold by the manufacturer and delivered to the job are mere shells ofsheet metal and these members may be of considerable length. Obviously,in the handling of these shells they may be bent, or dented so that theappearance will be marred. Again, the work of installation at the job isdone by carpenters and the woodwork at the points where the sash is tobe mounted must be made'to order, that is suited for the particular job,so that the work of installation for that reason is costly and unless itis done properly, or if it is done by unskilled and inexperiencedworkmen, the sash and the woodwork may not be properly adapted to eachother, and hence, the mounting will be defective. Again, an all metalsetting for plate glass is charged a higher rate of insurance than asetting of wood because of the greater danger of breakage. It isimportant, for reasons well known to those skilled in the art, toprovide for the drainage of water through the sash and for ventilation.The object of my invention is to provide a store front constructionwhich will possess all the advantages of the sheet metal finish, butwithout its draw backs and having provision for drainage andventilation, and to this end my invention consists in the store frontconstructed substantially as hereinafter specificed and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portionof a sash bar embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 a similar view showing the two members for supporting andclamping the glass separated from each other;

Fig. 3 is a cross section;

Fig. 4 a detail perspective view of the automatic ventilator controllingvalve.

In the main, or principally, my sash comprises two members between whichthe margin, or edge of the plate of glass is clamped, one of whichmembers, especially when considering the case of the bottom of theglass, supports the latter at its bottom edge and at the inner side ofthe glass provides a gutter to receive water of condensation, or washwater flowing down the inner side of the glass and from which gutter itis discharged through suitable passages or openings to the outside ofthe building, these passages or openings also serving as air passagesfor ventilation. Each of these members consists of a core of wood, ormetal, but preferably wood (although I do not restrict myself to thebroad aspect of the case to wood) and a sheet metal covering, or facingfor the core which covers and conceals all the surfaces that would beexposed to view so that the appearance is that of metal construction,and so that the surfaces of the core, which otherwise water might haveaccess to, will be protected and danger of rotting or decay of the woodbe prevented from the action of the water, if wood be the core, orrusting be prevented if the core be of steel or iron. One of thesemembers is designated A in the drawings and the other is designated B. Ishall describe these members for convenience as made of cores of wood.The member A, for convenience, I shall term the sill member, and itconsists of a strip 10 having intermediate its front and back edges onits upper side a vertical rib 11 of a length coextensive with the lengthof the strip, which, accordingly, provides at the rear side of thestrip, or the inner side of the window, a ledge 12 for the reception ofthe ends or edges of the strips of wood forming the window floor; andtoward the front side of the window provides a ledge 13 above which theedge of the plate of glass 14: is situated, considering the case of thebottom of the glass. In a plane lower than the edge'of the ledge 13 andon the outside of the window, a ledge 15 is provided; and preferably onthe underside of the sill member at the front is a bead or rib 16. Theupper side of the rib 11 on the top of the sill is dished or grooved sothat such upper surface is depressed and depressed preferably betweenthe front and rear edges of the rib, and at intervals along the sillthere are vertical holes 17 bored from the top of the rib clear throughto the bottom of the sill member where they, respec tively, open intoslots or channels 18 which are cut in the underside of the sill andextend from front to rear thereof. A covering 19, or a shell of sheetmetal, preferably, but not necessarily, copper, is applied to the topsurface of the rib 11, to the front surface thereof, to the ledge 13 infront of the rib 11 passing over the top and front surfaces of saidledge, to the top surface of the ledge 15, to the front face of the sillto the bottom of the rib or bead 16 on the underside thereof, and to therear side of said bead or rib, a continuous sheet of cop-: per beingextended over all these surfaces and one edge being carried in the formof a lip a short distance down the inner side of the rib 11 and theother edge being carried in the form of a lip a short distance on theunderside of the sill from the rib or bead 16, and this copper covering,or shell is inexpensively and accurately applied to and made to conformto the surfaces of the sill by the action of drawing dies which will bereadily understood, the core of the sill together with the copper beingpassed through the dies. Lining each vertical hole through the sill is atube 20 of sheet metal and a sheet metal conduit, or pipe 21 is placedin each of the slots 18 in the underside of the sill, said pipe orconduit having at the front a downward extension, or prolongation 22that passes through a hole in the bead or rib 16 on the underside of thesill so that a complete metal lined passage extends from the gutterwhich is formed at the top of the sill rib 11 through the sill to thebottom thereof, to the outside of the window so that water may passfreely from the gutter to the outside of the window and so that air mayalso pass through the sill for ventilation. The outer end 'of thepassage thus provided being in the underside of the sill is invisibleand obviously affords no opportunity for the lodgment of dustor othersubstances which would tend to clog up the outlet end of the opening. Itwill be seen that all surfaces which would be exposed to view arecovered by sheet metal and that all surfaces to which water might haveaccess are'covered by sheet metal.

The member B engages the outer surface of the glass and clamps orconfines the glass against the outer face of the'metal covered rib 11and said outer member B consists of a core 23 having a flat face towardthe outer side of the glass and a flat face toward the outer sill ledge15, and a covering or shell of sheet metal, such as copper, whichconforms to and covers the entire outer surfaces of the core and carriedat one edge in the form of a lip a short distance over the side towardthe glass and at the other edge a short distance over the side towardthe sill, these two lips being seated in rabbets in the core and theiredges carried inward into slits or kerfs in the core for the purpose ofa secure union of theshell, or covering and the core. The seating of thelips in rabbets in the core is desirable, cspecially in the case of theside of the strip toward the glass in that a wooden surface (if the corebe of wood) bears against the glass and thus the danger of breakage isdiminished. The member A is secured in position and made to clamp orbind against the glass by wood screws 25 that pass from the outsidedownward and in ward therethrough at an angle into the sill, aconstruction that is not only efficient, but simple and inexpensivesince no nut or screw socket of metal is necessary, such as is requiredin some constructions. It will be seen that in the case of the member Ball exposed surfaces are metal covered. Under wind pressures there is aslight rocking of a plate of glass. To allow that action to take placewithout breakage, I preferably provide on the side of the metal coveredrib 11 toward the glass, an offset or projection at the top of said ribwhich forms a bearing, or fulcrum, on which the glass can rock, a spacethus provided contiguous to the bottom edge of the glass permitting theunobstructed inward movement of the edge portion of the glass andoutward movement being possible by reason of the inherent resiliency ofthe outer member B which causes it to yield under the pressure which theglass imposes and causes it to follow up the glass when the pressure isrelieved, this action of the member B being possible because of thelocation of the securing screws 25.

If desired, the glass may be rested at its bottom edge upon wooden, orother setting blocks.

It may sometimes be desirable to close the water and air passages toprevent the inward passage of 'dusti'nto the window, or for otherreasons,and I provide means for doing this automatically and also byhand. It may be done automatically by the provision of a balancedbutterfly valve 26 pivoted contiguous to the lower end of each metallined hole 20 through the sill, which, by the action of wind that wouldcarry dust in any volume through the passage would automatically closeand as soon as the wind pressure should fall, would open. The valve26 isbalanced by a tail 260 which may be bifurcated, as shown in Fig. 4., soas to'interfere as little as possible with the passage of Water, andalso to make the area it exposes to the wind sufliciently less than thearea of the underside of the valve itself as not to interfere with theaction of the wind in closing the valve. The valve itself is just largeenough to close the hole so that, when open, it will ofier a minimumobstruction to the passage of water, and when open it is in an inclinedposition, as seen in Fig. 3, that will readily shed the water. It isnominally opened and left open by its own gravity supplemented by theweight of water upon its upper side. When open, it rests upon a boss orteat 210 in the bottomof the conduit 21 so as to still further diminishthe obstruction to the outflow of water. Of course, I do not limitmyself to any particular location of this valve; nor to any particularform of the automatic ventilator control, which it constitutes.

For closin the ventilator openings by hand, from the inside, I pivot tothe inner edge of the gutter a strip 27 curved in cross section tocorrespond with the curvature of the gutter, which when in the positionshown in dotted lines in Fig. 3, fits the gutter and tightly closes theopenings, and when in the position shown in full lines, is completelyout of the gutter and overlies the adjacent portion of the wood floorand thereby extends the metal protection of the wooden portion of thestructure from water flowing or splashing from the window. This hingedcover is easy to open, even though the surface in contact with thegutter should tend to stick. As shown in Fig. 1, my invention embodies aconstruction not using either the automatic ventilator control; nor saidinside hand ventilator control. For closing the passages by hand a slide28 having slots or openings corresponding with the outlets of saidpassages, may be applied at the bottom of the rib or bead 16 on theunderside of the sill, and by a simple sliding movement made to close oropen said passage. I thus provide for controlling ventilation in themost complete and convenient manner.

It is obvious that my sash is applicable to the side jambs and top, ortransom, as well as at the bottom, and identically the same constructionwithout any change whatever may be employed at the sides and tops aswell as at the bottom but if preferred, where the sash is to be used atthe sides and top, the openings or passages for drainage and ventilationmay be omitted; and it is also apparent that either or both of thedevices for automatically closing the passages may be omitted.

The coreof the sill member may be made by mill work of a single piece ofwood, or. other material, or if preferred the rib 11 may be madeseparate, a groove or channel of proper width and depth being providedin the upper side of the sill to receive it. (See Fig. 3). It will beunderstood that the tubes which form the linings for the water and airpassages are preferably soldered to the copper gutter lining, orcovering.

It will be seen that by my invention I provide as a complete article ofmanufacture, ready to be delivered on the job, the necessary members ofthe sash including the wood work to be used therewith, thus simplifyingthe operation of installation at the job, saving the extra cost ofcarpenter work and making it certain that the glass-engaging membersshall be properly installed even though the workmen be unskilled, orinexperienced. Danger of injury to the sash by bending or indentation inhandling, such as exists in the case of the mere shells heretofore used,is avoided, and I economize in the use of sheet metal, which, of course,in the case of copper particularly, is important because all of thesheet metal being backed and supported by a core it can be made muchthinner than is possible when no core is used.

Of course, changes in construction for the embodiment of my inventionmay be made which will involve no departure from the principle of theinvention.

Having thus described my invention What I claim is 1. As animproven'ient in store front construetion, a sash member comprising aninner glass engaging element having on its upper side a rib whose outerface engages the side of the glass, and having forward of such rib asupport for the bottom of the glass, tube-lined openings extendingdownward through the rib from the top thereof, and wholly within therib, the top being depressed to form a gutter leading to said openings,and said openings being in communication with the outside of the storefront, and means for clamping the glass against said projection.

2. As an improvement in store front construction, a sash membercomprising an innor glass engaging element having on its upper side arib whose outer face engages the side of the glass, and having forwardof such rib a support for the bottom of the glass, tube-lined openingsextending downward through the rib from the top thereof,

and Wholly Within the rib, the top being metal, and its uncoveredsurface lying in 10 depressed Where the upper ends of said opencontactwith the glass.

lngs are situated, means to establish eom- In testimony that I claim theforegoing I munigatioin lfetween sfftid openings and ifzhe have hereuntoset my hand.

outsi e 0' tie store rent and means or 1 clamping the glass against saidrib compris- GEORGE HESTER ing a metal-covered core of yielding ma-VVitnessesz,

terial, the portion of the core toward the RACHEL LADENsoHN,

glass being only partially covered With O. F. G-EETING.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C.

